John Voyage

You started messing with guitars as a kid. When did music actually click as your thing?

Pretty early on. My dad played guitar, so there were always guitars around the house, and I started messing with them when I was about eight. Around ten I really started trying to learn, getting some free lessons from him. Both my parents are into music, so I grew up with a lot of classic rock floating around. By thirteen I was in full start-a-band mode, trying to find people at school to play with. I basically never stopped.

Your new album It's Only Fair came out last fall. How do you go about building a record?

I don't usually go in with a set idea of what it's going to be. I'll write as many songs as I can and do rough demo versions, then look at the whole group and figure out how they fit together. I like leaving it open-ended, genre included. It's not a rigid thing where I can only use certain guitar tones or a certain kind of drum beat. Some people won't listen to anything else while they're recording so outside ideas don't seep in, but I'm the opposite. I'm always trying to find something new to me, whether it's from a different decade or a style I haven't heard, because that's what gets me wanting to pick up the guitar. These are solo albums, but I bring people in where I need to. Adrian Choate plays drums in my live band and played on a bunch of the tracks. Drums are my weakest area, so that's where I outsource the most, and he kind of plays them the way I wish I could.

The stretch from "Calment's Lament" into "The City" and "Nightmare" really stood out to me. Where did that come from?

"Calment's Lament" started as a collaboration with an artist named Grassmell from the UK, who wanted to do something with a historical theme. The title refers to Jeanne Calment, who at one point was the oldest person who ever lived. The idea was, what would that be like if you outlived everyone you ever knew, and how lonely that might be. From there the three tracks run together as one seamless piece. "The City" picks up the story with a character, maybe a relative who inherited her wealth and used it to leave Europe and see what else was out there. It's implied he heads to New York. My mom actually lives there, so I had her do some field recording, and we got real street noise from Brooklyn onto the track. Then "Nightmare" follows this young, naive traveler who blindly hitchhikes to the city, and whether it does or doesn't match what he expected. The saxophone at the end of "The City" was something I really wanted. I associate that sound with a late-night city vibe, steam coming out of a manhole, no one around. That was played by Evan Novosad, a coworker of mine at the music store, and he's even hopped on for a couple of live shows when we play it.

Your album covers get a lot of attention. Who's behind the art?

Pretty much all of my artwork, from album covers to show posters, has been a collaboration with Michaela Brown, a local painter who studied fine arts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Sometimes it's a painting she already did that I liked and asked to use, and other times it's more conceptual, where I have an idea of what I want and we work together to make it happen. The artwork matters a lot to me. I'm a vinyl and physical media person, and album covers are something I stare at while I'm listening, so I put a lot of thought into what feels like it matches the music.

You've lived in Lincoln your whole life. What's the scene like for you here?

I've lived here the whole time. I played in some bands that traveled between about 2011 and 2014, and I've been to around forty states, so I've gotten out and seen a lot. But this has always been home base. The scene here is pretty cool right now. A lot of people know each other and play in each other's projects. Chad Fey plays keys for me and has his own group, Post Service Collective. Sam Bennie and Keeran Woode are both in a band called Das Dat, doing funky R&B stuff. There's a group called The Owls that a couple of the guys are in, and they're working on their first recordings. It does seem like more and more people are going out to shows, which is good. For us, the favorite spot is The Zoo. It's a cozy room where it doesn't take much to pack the place out, and they treat the bands really well.

What's next, and where should someone start if they've never heard you?

Right now I'm finishing a new single, working title "Close Enough," just to keep something coming out. I've also got some early demo versions from It's Only Fair that I'll probably release as behind-the-scenes stuff. Then it's on to album three. The first record came out at the end of 2021 and this one landed in late 2025, and I don't want a four-year gap between every album, so I'm trying to stay on it. We've got a Kansas City and Lincoln run coming at the end of July, with the full band back at The Zoo on the 25th. If someone's never heard me, I'd point them to "Shed" or "Good Morning" off the first album. We've been opening recent shows with those two, and they're kind of the definitive songs for the project right now.

John Voyage's music is on Spotify and Apple Music. The best way to support the project is to listen, share the music with someone who might connect with it, and come out to a live show.